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PowerDoc

The PowerDoc software was developed at the request of a large medical clinic in Long Island, New York. The problem to be confronted is one that is common in medical offices: Mountains of tedious and time consuming documentation and endless correspondence. Even with power-users and powerful word processors, keeping ahead of the curve can be a daunting, labor intensive task.

The client was looking for an innovative solution that would reduce the process of creating a four to six page document from thirty minutes to just two or three minutes.

This solution has, at its core, powerful word-processing capabilities embedded in an intuitive user interface. There are three elements to this interface. First, there are the user controls (check boxes, radio buttons, lists, ect�) to allow for the entry of the information to be incorporated into the document. Owing to the large volume of information, a tabbed-folder is the perfect organizational metaphor.

The second element is the embedded word processing capability. The document is assembled as the data is entered into the forms, but the final result can be modified if necessary. TX Text Control is the hands-down best of breed for this task. Unlike word processors, its object model is designed to be a component, not a finished product. A developer can be productive in a fraction of the time it would take to master the object model of MS-Word, for example. The third element of the system is its navigational and retrieval capabilities. For this part, the Explorer type tabbed tree model with viewing pane provides the needed flexibility. The documents need to be retrieved quickly and by various criteria:

• Documents and test results for a specific date
• History of Documents for a specific patient
• A list of documentation for each type of test sorted by date or by patient
• The user needs to be able to apply a date range
• View only printed documents, not printed or all documents

At present, the software handles osteoporosis studies and arthroscopy procedure. Several more applications are planned using the same basic design.

Courtesy of Walter Levine, Sig Systems, Inc http://www.sigsys.net

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